Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

[Oldskewl]

May want to try to increase the temp a bit to around 72 to help it finish.

 

[WhoDatDad78]

I had that thought oldskwel. I actually did just that after my post. It's been sitting in a warm fermenter at 72-73 for the last few days. I took a gravity reading with my hydrometer-1.006.- and then with my refractometer-1.026-😠. I guess either refractometers don't read finished beer well, or mine is out of calibration. On a side note, what do I do with the sulphur/rhino fart smell? Is that something I wait out, or do I bottle and it conditions out?

 

[Oldskewl]

Refractometers cannot read FG as the alcohol screws with it. I would let it sit a while and see if the fart smell goes away. I kegged mine last year at 11 days(I think) and the fart smell and bitterness never cleared up. I dumped the last gallon or so. Next time I am not going to rush it so much.

 

[WhoDatDad78]

Anyone know about how long it will take until that smell possibly goes away? I've done Belgian Wits and Hefes before, but never experienced that sulphur smell before.

 

[WhoDatDad78]

Anyone know about how long it will take until that smell possibly goes away? I've done Belgian Wits and Hefes before, but never experienced that sulphur smell before.

In case anyone has the same issue, it took 5 days at 72°F for the yeast to clean up the smell. I would assume if you fermented colder than 66-68 °F it may take longer.

 

[Oldskewl]

Glad to hear the extended time on the yeast helped clear it up. I need to give this one another shot.

 

[jojacques]

Brewed this 4 days ago and made a few mistakes, curious to see how it will come out:

-Made a mistake when I ordered the Malt... So I only had 4lbs of Weyermann White Wheat. I substituted with what I had of hand: 1lb regular White Wheat and 1lb White Wheat (Unmalted) and used an extra pound of Pils Malt. Hum!
-Completely forgot to add the second hop addition (wth dude?)
-Left my fermentation chamber at 82F and only noticed 7 hours later. Fermentation had already started (like crazy). I then fixed the ferm chamber's temperature to 71F.

I used WB-06 and after 4 days I can taste a lot of bubblegum... probably due to the crazy high temperature. Let's see how it is after 10 days! (I will report back)

 

[Yirg]

I'd like to brew this and only have access to WLP300 yeast. How many vials would I need for a 15 gallon batch, and what would be the impact on the quality of the beer if I cheapen out and reduce the amount?

Thanks!

 

[Abrayton]

Forgive me if it was already posted, but what type of Hallertauer hops was/should be used if following the original recipe?
Cheers!

 

[Abrayton]

nevermind. Answer found on page 131-132

 

[brhenrio]

I'd like to brew this and only have access to WLP300 yeast. How many vials would I need for a 15 gallon batch, and what would be the impact on the quality of the beer if I cheapen out and reduce the amount?

Thanks!

Underpitching this one will give off lots of banana and clove.

 

[WhoDatDad78]

Mine finally bottle conditioned. I'll try to post a pic in the next day or so.

 

[safcraft]

I have this one for 6 days in primary going like bananas...i mean the yeast went of in 3h from pitch and I could not take the blow off tube still!!
Very active and blowing away co2 like hell.
I made according to edwort recipe and am keeping temperature stable at 20 C.
Is it normal to ferment so vigorous? When can I turn off the fridge and let it fly ?

 

[safcraft]

So on the 7th day of primary i turned off the fridge and temperature rised from 20ºC to 23ºC.
It is now on the 10th day...but stil i get some activity in the airlock plus i see debris floating around from bottom to top and vice versa.
I have a TON of trub in the bottom of the fermenter...like 2 inches way above my spigot ! So i can take a sample because i would only get trub!

Should i leave it alone another week and then crash cool ?

 

[WhoDatDad78]

So on the 7th day of primary i turned off the fridge and temperature rised from 20ºC to 23ºC.
It is now on the 10th day...but stil i get some activity in the airlock plus i see debris floating around from bottom to top and vice versa.
I have a TON of trub in the bottom of the fermenter...like 2 inches way above my spigot ! So i can take a sample because i would only get trub!

Should i leave it alone another week and then crash cool ?

I would go ahead and crash cool. If you have a wine thief, sanitize it and steal a gravity sample. Then if you're at gravity, crash for a day and bottle/keg.

 

[safcraft]

Ok...so i am devastated. I used a wine thief to take a sample. Its on FG so that is OK.
BUT...i was once again cursed with some kind of infection or whatever.
The beer tastes nasty, medicinal, something like IODOPHOR (Betadine) or Hospital sanitizer !?
This is not the first time i have this, and eventually the smell and taste fades a little but this is time is realy nasty and strong. It IS undrinkable right now.

I have searched and searched and didnt conclude whatever the cause may be....i am disapointed.
I am carefull about sanitizing and i have good beers most of the time. Sometimes one comes along with this problem. I use ChemiPro Oxi and StarSan.

My tap water is very soft and odorless. Still, i put a couple of Campden tablets in the brewing water, so cholramines should be rulled out.

This particular beer was temperature controlled to SPEC : 20ºC steady

I think i am suspecting a common ingredient in the bad beers : WHEAT
Whenever i use wheat....this comes along !
This is 60% wheat...so its medicine on steroids !

I have 2 Saison in primary right now. They both have 10% wheat...and i can feel a "litle" medicine in them. Its not much and because they are dark , i know the taste will fade away.
Still.....could it be the wheat in combination with another aspect that i did not think yet ??

I hate to waste such a good beer. I did make this recipe about 1 year ago....and it was wonderfull. I do not remember if i used bottled spring water for that.....

 

[Horseflesh]

It is interesting that you correlate the off flavor with the use of wheat. It should be easy enough to do a conclusive test... You could do a stovetop mini-mash of plain 2-row and another of pure wheat and ferment them in jars. Exact gravity wouldn't even matter if you're just looking for the presence of the off-flavor. Then if the wheat is the culprit you can try a different supplier. I hope you can get it figured out, no one should be denied hefeweizen!

 

[safcraft]

Yes I could do a quick experiment but I used my last wheat on the saison...
So if buy new wheat I will not get conclusive if both batches turn ok.
If only the wheat turns bad....then it may point to something....

 

[Sippingainteasy]

My OG was a little high at 1.060 finished at 1.010 tastes good though. This is a day after kegging and force carbed it's really clear.

View attachment 1505305791454.jpg

 

[safcraft]

I narrowed down the terrible off flavour to stressed yeast.
I don't know why they stressed but they did. I Since made a Weizenbock with same strain that turned out wonderful.

 

[WhoDatDad78]

I narrowed down the terrible off flavour to stressed yeast.
I don't know why they stressed but they did. I Since made a Weizenbock with same strain that turned out wonderful.

Did you use a starter? Perhaps you needed more yeast? Or maybe the temp was too high? Oxidation could also be the culprit. I've had a few beers where I know they were sanitary, they were exposed to air via auto-siphon and turned out with the dreaded cardboard taste.

On a side note, how long does one keep Hefe's? I love them but at ~60 bottles they tend to stick around for a while. Often they end up with a putrid aftertaste.

 

[Horseflesh]

I have never had a problem with hefeweizen sticking around too long.

"Putrid" is a pretty bad off-flavor, do you have any other brews that turn out the same? In my interpretation that sounds more like spoilage than staleness.

 

[skraeling]

I narrowed down the terrible off flavour to stressed yeast.
I don't know why they stressed but they did. I Since made a Weizenbock with same strain that turned out wonderful.

maybe bad yeast from the get go?

 

[safcraft]

maybe bad yeast from the get go?

I don't know if its possible to get "bad yeast" from a Wyeast pack.
If it is (because it was summer , and it did get 5 days to get here ), then i would blame the yeast in the first place.

I did make a starter. I made a 2L starter and decanted the yeast from it ( yeast starter for 3 days, refrigerated for 2 days, then decanted)

I used a different Yeast pack to make a WeizenBock and i had NO problems.
Maybe it was the bloddy yeast pack. I do know the yeast was stressed...horrible taste, never subsided . Threw 50 botlles in the trash can.

I keep a bottle of yeast , harvested from the Weizenbock , in the fridge.
I will try another time, doing a Hefe with this i a future window.

For now...i am too busy brewing Red Ales, Australian Pales and Vienna Lagers !!

 

[WhoDatDad78]

I have never had a problem with hefeweizen sticking around too long.

"Putrid" is a pretty bad off-flavor, do you have any other brews that turn out the same? In my interpretation that sounds more like spoilage than staleness.

I did have one last summer that went that direction. "Spoilage" as in being kept too long? Like it expired?

 

[safcraft]

Not kept too long but I only get this yeast ordering online. so I have about 5 days in transit times. in the summer it can get hot.

 

[marc1138]

Just brewed this up today. First AG batch and fourth hefe and boy was it fun. Used WLP300 cause thats what my lhbs carries and I've used it before. OG of exactly 1.052. I'm going to ferment in the mid 60's and possibly ramp it up to 68-70. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Brewed this on Nov 12, FG reached 1.012 and stayed there so I bottled on Nov 28th, I carbed to 3.7 volumes with 8oz table sugar according to brewers friend. Now I'm reading that 3.7 is kinda high for standard bottles. Most of them were the standard homebrew type that microbrews come in, several were .5L German weizen bottles, a couple 22oz. bombers, but its the case and a half of sam adams bottles that have me worrying. How many days should I wait to start sampling? I'm planning to weed out the weaker bottles to chill and drink first, trusting the rest will be strong enough to handle the final pressure.

 

[jpLV]

Had fun brewing this yesterday and now have a new thing to figure out. I mill my own grain and never have had a problem with efficiency however for this one my mash gravity was low. I ended up adding some light dme I had on hand to bump it up. Ended up with an OG of 1.050 so should end up being fine. I did read that I might want to double mill my wheat malt to help with this type of issue. I've never made a beer AG that was primarily wheat so that might explain why I've never had this happen. I also noticed later that this recipe has a 90 min mash. Again something I've never done. Anyways, live and learn. Sure it will turn out great.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Had fun brewing this yesterday and now have a new thing to figure out. I mill my own grain and never have had a problem with efficiency however for this one I was my mash gravity was low. I ended up adding some light dme I had on hand to bump it up. Ended up with an OG of 1.050 so should end up being fine. I did read that I might want to double mill my wheat malt to help with this type of issue. I've never made a beer AG that was primarily wheat so that might explain why I've never had this happen. I also noticed later that this recipe has a 90 min mash. Again something I've never done. Anyways, live and learn. Sure it will turn out great.

Wheat kernels are smaller than barley, so if your mill is set up to crush barley it won't crush wheat as well. You could tighten up the roller gap or mill the wheat twice. You could also compensate the reduced efficiency with more grain.

 

[HowlingHog]

Brewed a 22 gallon variation using 30 lbs. wheat and 14 1lbs. 2 row, Hallertau and 4 dry packages of Danstar Munich Yeast.

I did adhere to temps, mash times and hops additions - per Ed.

The brewery I buy grain from sells specialty malt for $1.50/$1.75 but doesn't carry German Pilsner. I get 2 row for .50 cents a pound so I use it as my primary base malt for nearly everything I do.

The OG was 1.048.

Took off like crazy after 36 hours and it's been 6 days at 65 degrees in my basement and has settled down a bit.

The VP of Consumption at the Howling Hog loves her Wheat Beers, and I think she will like this!


Thanks, Ed!

 

[jpLV]

Was able to taste the batch I made this weekend. I did pick up a little residual sweetness that I'm guessing came through having to use the DME to bump up the gravity. Still was super tasty. I had a lot of people compliment me on the NEIPA I also did but the hefe keg kicked first. Guess that tells me it was hit.

 

[Surfanarchist]

Brewing tomorrow

 

[trevelynzx]

Brewing this again tomorrow with 12oz C40 added to inch closer to Franziskaner. 11gal.

 

[trevelynzx]

Still dialing in my BIAB approach so ther was an inordinate amount of squeezing and muttering. mash ph hit 6.1 - i’m thinking the wheat - so i added 26ml of lactic 88. had this same issue last time and failed to properly account for it. hopefully it won’t tart up the final product too much. note to self, look into acidualted malt for next time...

BS was way off on its PH prediction too. wonder what that’s about...

 

[trevelynzx]

Been in the fermenter for over a week now. Gravity’s at 1.022 but it hasn’t been moving very quickly for a few days now. worried I have a stuck fermentation. Use WLP 300 for the first time and got a crazy sulfur smell over the course of the first week. Is this normal and should I just wait a few more days? Or pitch another vial?

 

[nathliea]

3rd Place winner of the 2007 Alamo Cerveza Fest

Bavarian Hefeweizen 5.5 Gallon

7# German Wheat
4# German Pils
.5# Rice Hulls (if needed to prevent stuck mash)

Mash for 90 minutes at 153 degrees.

.75 Hallertau @ 45
.25 Hallertau @ 15

Wyeast Weihenstephan 3068 with starter.

Ferment 10 days at 68 degrees then crash cool & keg.

O.G. 1.052
F.G. 1.009

5.6% abv

I decided to use this as my first all-grain batch. It's ready to bottle (which I'll do this weekend) and tastes great. Thank you, EdWort!

 

[TxBigHops]

Been in the fermenter for over a week now. Gravity’s at 1.022 but it hasn’t been moving very quickly for a few days now. worried I have a stuck fermentation. Use WLP 300 for the first time and got a crazy sulfur smell over the course of the first week. Is this normal and should I just wait a few more days? Or pitch another vial?

Definitely leave it in longer.

I once brewed this with a yeast other than 3068. Once! Never again. 3068 rules with this beer.

 

[trevelynzx]

haha crap! i’ll use that next time. did that the first time and must have under pitched, came out a bit weird.

but this one seems to be shaping up. has a slight rubber hose flavor, wondering if that’s from over/ under pitching. ugh. hopefully that’ll clean up. it’s not too bad but i’m pretty critical.

 

[nathliea]

This came out really good. Very different from American hefs but I feel the style is represented well. Coincidentally, I have a single glass from a Bavarian Brewery. I have no idea how this glassware came into my possession, but I thought it fitting to drink this beer from it.